Author: Kent McManigal

Hope and Despair in Nearly Equal Parts

Kent McManigal

I’ve been observing and listening to what people around me are saying concerning recent events. It’s been interesting.

I’ve heard people say that they never thought tyranny in America was a possibility… until the pandemic. Now they see how easily it could happen.

Since the beginning of the pandemic I’ve heard the laughter at preppers be replaced by “show me how” and “I wish I had listened“.

I’ve seen people who never cared about liberty suddenly start to pay attention.

I’ve seen more and more people getting their kids out of kinderprison.

This all gives me some hope.

On the other side of the coin, I’ve also seen people watching and waiting, anxiously, for that next “stimulus check” from Uncle Scam.

I’ve seen people calling the socialistic nihilists in big cities “anarchists” as if that’s what they were.

I’ve seen people looking at events and stupidly saying “this is why we need police” and emphasizing how helpless and useless they are to take care of their own lives without a master to do it for them.

I’ve seen “libertarians” arguing for re-opening the government schools on schedule and/or using the stolen money to fund other forms of schooling.

My latest newspaper column offended another sort of person. The sort of person who doesn’t want to see anything which might disturb his dreams.

He began his one-run-on sentence email by saying this is his home town (OK… I was born here too, but how is that relevant?) and he hasn’t seen any higher prices (I have and so has the person I mentioned in the column and if you check gold, silver, and Bitcoin prices you can see them right now with your own eyes) and that to him, the dollar “hasn’t lost anything”.

I could show him charts, but the trick he plays is in the “to him“. The dollar is still worth what it was– to him— because he believes it is. No evidence will convince him otherwise because he believes what he believes. I wonder if he has ever once in his whole life complained about a higher price for anything. Because that would falsify his claim.

He ended by saying “God is in control” and knows what’s going on.

I probably shouldn’t have replied, but I did.

I’m glad for you.

I’ll tell the person who had started noticing higher prices in Clovis stores that you say she must be imagining it.

I’ll also tell the gold and silver sellers that they have to sell their products to me at last month’s prices because you say prices aren’t going up. I wonder what they’ll say.

God knowing what’s going on doesn’t mean God wouldn’t let humans suffer for doing foolish things. Actions have consequences.

Am I wrong?

As always, there are reasons for both hope and despair. The shining examples, the mistakes in human skin, and the self-deluding.

On the economic side of things, my income keeps declining due to the effects of the government-caused Coronapanic, so if you’d care to sign up for a monthly subscription on any of the platforms I use I’d appreciate it. See below for your chance to chip in or email me for more options.

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Let’s Adapt to Something Positive

Kent McManigal

Humans are adaptable. More so than any creature other than, possibly, cockroaches. It’s our greatest strength.

We have adapted to living almost everywhere on the planet and, soon, with the right technology — an adaptation we’ve created — off-planet, too.

We’ve adapted to a different diet than our ancestors ate. In some cases, we probably haven’t adapted well enough yet, and our health can suffer the consequences, but we’re getting there.

Not all adaptations are helpful. We have adapted to some things we should have resisted.

We’ve adapted to having our freedom and property rights trashed by the worst among us. Ironically, in the beginning they used the excuse of protecting our freedom and property rights as to why we should go along with what they were doing to us. They were lying.

We’ve adapted to the demand to hand our children over to the state to be indoctrinated during their most impressionable years. We are told this is for the purpose of educating them because we are incapable and too ignorant to educate them ourselves. If that’s true, it’s only because we were victims of the same indoctrination system in our youth. It’s time to break the cycle.

We’ve adapted to tax burdens far beyond the levels that caused our ancestors to violently throw a government out of the country. Some people have adapted so well they want taxes to be even higher.

We recently adapted to stifling conditions imposed by governments using the excuse of COVID-19. Whether or not the restrictions were necessary, or even helpful in the slightest, most of us complied and adapted. Probably more than was healthy.

As bad as these things are on their own, it’s more tragic to passively accept them. Most people have adapted so completely they don’t even notice and accept it as “just how it is done.” It doesn’t have to be.

To adapt to certain conditions isn’t anything to be proud of. You shouldn’t tolerate having your natural human rights violated by anyone under any circumstances, but most of us do to some extent.

You are expected to adapt to even more restrictions with each new year. It’s time to make a stand. If we lose this fight — if we don’t resist — our grandchildren won’t understand what they’ve lost.

Let’s adapt to some positive things for a change, such as a life of liberty, including real property rights. The future can be great. It’s up to us to make it so.

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“Everything is Political”

Kent McManigal

I mentioned my dislike of non-political sites dragging politics into their content.

When I mentioned this to one of the guilty parties, they said “everything is political“. If that were the case, we’d be living in a dystopia.

But this assertion makes me believe some people see politics differently than I do. Shocking, I know.

Maybe they see every human action as politics. This is mistaken and shows they don’t understand the difference between persuasion/consent and coercion/aggression. You can interact with other people non-politically; that’s the only ethical way to do it. If you only deal with others through politics you’re not a good person.

Perhaps the others may imagine politics to be a “necessary evil” [sic].

Some people seem to believe that since everything has been made subject to government and its legislation, this means everything is political. No, it just means government is a bullying trespasser. It steps on lives, liberties, and properties where it has no business treading.

I understand the feeling that since politics is being used against you, you must use politics in retaliation. But that’s antisocial. It’s more social and civilized to simply shoot the person using politics against you– there’s no “collateral damage” that way. Fewer people die or are otherwise harmed in the long run.

People who imagine that everything is political are living a much smaller and nastier life than they could be living. It’s a tragedy. Forcing it on everyone else is a crime.

Yes, those who embrace politics have things backward and will insist that their perverted view is the right one. That’s because politics makes people stupid.

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Tired of Political Drama over Virus

Kent McManigal

On the personal front, there are new developments in the continuing saga of the Greatly Feared Virus Pandemic of 2020.

Two family members caught COVID-19 several weeks ago. They both apparently recovered, in spite of being in the age group most vulnerable. One even has additional risk factors but made it through and now feels fine.

After being tested he was told to take Tylenol and get help if he started having trouble breathing. When the hospital called a few days later to tell him he had tested positive they didn’t change their instructions. This sounds to me like the medical professionals didn’t take the virus too seriously, but as it turns out they didn’t need to.

I was thoroughly exposed and apparently didn’t catch it. I say “apparently” because we are warned by the politicized medical experts of hidden dangers from this sneaky virus. Those who recover are warned of lasting damage to major organs, and those without symptoms are warned they may have it and be contagious without knowing.

How convenient. Notice how this justifies — in some people’s minds — the ongoing shut-downs and mask mandates. After all, if you can’t know anything for certain, you’d better comply with everything suggested by our Glorious Leaders in their pronouncements from the cathedrals of government.

Or not.

Still, because I care about people, I was cautious about exposing others to my possible contagious condition. I don’t want to be a Typhoid Mary. As I’ve said from the beginning, I can take something seriously without panicking over it.

This virus could still kill me. It’s unlikely but possible. I could also be taken out by a meteor, but if that’s the case no one in the region would be safe. This area might get a cool attraction out of my demise, though. It worked for Arizona with their meteor crater.

I joke, but I’m tired of the adolescent drama coming from political quarters. They made it personal when my family vacation got canceled by New Mexico’s tyrannical governor and her forced shut-downs of almost everything. I don’t blame the virus for this; I blame political overreactions and those using the virus as an excuse to see how hard they can push.

I need time in the mountains and on forest trails. This opportunity was stolen from me by the fear-mongering politicians. Is this safety fascism likely to earn them my thanks and loyalty?

What do you think?

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Who Should Have Political Power?

Kent McManigal

I don’t want Muslims to have political power.

I don’t want black people to have political power.

I don’t want women to have political power.

I don’t want young people to have political power.

I don’t want LGBTQXYZ3.14159… people to have political power.

I don’t want Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, socialists, or Constitutionalists to have political power.

None at all.

That’s because I’m being consistent.

I don’t want anyone— no groups or individuals– to have political power. That includes straight white men of any (or no) religion and of any age.

Political power is an evil thing to hold. Why would I wish that kind of evil on anyone?

You have the responsibility to not archate. That’s plenty for anyone to handle.

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Government Should Follow Rules Too

Kent McManigal

People seem confused about what role — if any — government plays in our lives. This misunderstanding causes problems.

Government was never intended to be the master, but the servant. Your servant doesn’t tell you what you are allowed to do, nor punish you for not obeying him. The servant isn’t allowed to do things in secret with the master’s money, nor to keep any job-related secrets from the master. Your servant is accountable to you; never the other way around.

If someone takes a government job, they either accept their subservient position in society, or they can take a job — without such strings attached — in the productive sector. Forgetting their place should result in immediate unemployment with no chance of ever holding another government job.

Government wrongly claims to have the right to track everyone, spy on everything we do, collect all our information, and punish us for doing things we have the natural human right to do, but which government forbids. Nothing can trump natural human rights, not even the opinions of the vocal majority legislated and enforced by government employees.

Police across New Mexico object to a requirement to wear body cameras, which help them be held accountable to their bosses — the people of the community. If they can’t do their job under this condition, they are free to find other jobs. No one is forcing them to be police.

Locally, people are begging government for permission to re-open their restaurants, when government never had the legitimate authority to shut businesses in the first place. This illustrates the danger of allowing the servant to require business licenses. It’s none of their business who opens what kind of business, and nothing can make it their business. Not even if “this is how we’ve always done it,” which isn’t true anyway.

Local government is even pretending it should have the power to dictate whether someone will be allowed to use their own property as a subdivision.

This is crazy!

If we are to continue to fund government and give it our occasional obedience there must be rules for it to follow. Since the Constitution has been ignored for the past century and a half or so, what do you suggest be tried next?

Those who want to keep political government around are the ones responsible for keeping it out of the lives of everyone else. If you won’t rein in your troublesome servant, his misbehavior is on your head.

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